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AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ) was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. AUQ shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 15 hedge funds in our database with AUQ positions at the end of the previous quarter.

To most investors, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at present, we at Insider Monkey look at the masters of this club, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by monitoring their best picks, we have uncovered a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (see the details here).

Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the financial markets. Obviously, there are many motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if “monkeys” understand where to look (learn more here).

How are hedge funds trading AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ)?

At year’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -13% from the third quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

According to our comprehensive database, Sun Valley Gold, managed by Peter Franklin Palmedo, holds the most valuable position in AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ). Sun Valley Gold has a $29 million position in the stock, comprising 1.5% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Dreman Value Management, managed by David Dreman, which held a $28 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital and Michael Katz’s Glenrock Global Partners.

Since AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ) has experienced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there was a specific group of hedge funds who sold off their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management dumped the largest position of all the hedgies we key on, worth an estimated $4 million in stock., and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $2 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.

How are insiders trading AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, AuRico Gold Inc (USA) (NYSE:AUQ) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).